Service users use the internet more and more to find and book services from service providers. For example, a service user can use the internet to book diner in a restaurant, to book a show in a theatre, to book an appointment with a doctor, etc. The internet is becoming a very comprehensive “market place” where “service providers” and “service users” meet. Yet, every transaction tends to be handled separately. For example, it is easy to book a restaurant on one website, and to book a concert on another website. Sometimes, it is even possible to book both of them on the same website. But it is the user's responsibility to find services that go great together or are complimentary. By “go great together” or complimentary it is meant, services or activities that form a succession optimized against pre-defined criteria. Such criteria typically include: activities in the succession should not overlap in time; and activities in the succession should be geographically close from each other. A service user might also want to consider additional criteria. For example: overall price for the succession; or reviews for the activities in the succession
Currently no automated system or method exists that, taking into account a service user request, is able to propose a flexible succession of activities matching user-defined criteria, that “go great together.” It is therefore an objective of the present invention to teach such as system and method.
If, for example, a group of friends have a Saturday to spend together in a city, they know they will want to do one or more activities together. There is currently no automated and integrated internet based system or method to answer the following simple query: we are eight; we are in London; we are free from 10 am to midnight next Saturday; we want to go see a movie, go to a concert, and have diner in a restaurant; with one or more optimized succession of activities for them to book. Based on the systems and methods currently known in the art, they will have to either find pre-packaged deals—but with no or limited flexibility, or, most of the time, plan themselves activities that “go great together”. To achieve the latter, this group of friends will have to go through the following steps: (1) identify cinemas, concerts and restaurants in the area where they plan to be, (2) for each of them, verify availability, and (3) optimize their choice of activities so that they do not overlap in time, are in close geographical proximity, and potentially satisfy other custom criteria such as best reviews, and desired price/costs. In practice, the three steps above are not sequential but interleaved and the whole process often requires many iterations: the group might find a concert they like but then realize there is no restaurant with availability for eight in the vicinity, etc. This organization and optimization process applies every time a service user who by definition has limited time available is dealing with service providers who, by definition, have limited availability. Service users want to make the most of their free time and need to juggle with service providers' availability.
The system and method taught by the present invention solves this organization challenge, thanks to the unique combination of three main features: (1) providing a hub for service providers; (2) providing the ability to check, in real time, the availability of these service providers (typically, service providers have limited availability per time slot. For example, a cinema has a limited number of seats per show. A doctor can receive a limited number of patients every day); and (3) providing the ability to optimize a stream of service providers under various constraints.